Different
by Zooie
Summary: Self-imposed 200 word fic challenge. A POV piece for each of the boys on the topic of being different.
1. Heero

Disclaimer: Roses are red. Violets are dull. G Wing isn't mine. My profits are null.

Once the war began, I quickly realized that I was different from the rest of the world. I thought differently, reacted differently, and was socially incompatible with other people my age. Although I hadn't truly expected otherwise, it still came as a bit of a shock.

"Why does everyone make fun of my sneakers?" I once asked Dr. J. "They're just shoes. Who cares what they look like?"

He cackled, responding "Because that's all they _can _make fun of, boy. That's the only thing about you that's not above reproach. You're so perfect, they're reduced to nitpicking when they wish to criticize."

"I'm not perfect," I denied, flustered, feeling aghast at the very idea. "I'm no more perfect than the next person."

Then he positively grinned and shook his head in amusement. "And modest to boot. Boy, you're so perfect it's frightening."

"But I don't feel perfect," I admitted quietly. "I feel disorganized."

He laughed. "Then maybe you should get a new pair of shoes."

And that's the way it would be. Things would go full circle, with me looking for rationale, but finding only more questions, more rebuffs. It seemed there simply weren't any reasons for my being different.


	2. Duo

I've always kind of liked fitting in. While there's something to be said for nonconformity, you can't help but want to be like everyone else once in a while... or most of the while. No one should be a martyr to the cause of himself. 

Likewise, I've always believed that if you're going to try and fit the universe's norms, you shouldn't settle for being mediocre or substandard. You should be the best damn person you can be, whether that means you're the most compassionate, the fastest typist, or simply the strongest. If you're going to fit in, you should do it with a bang. Play the game, but make up your own rules.

The key to fitting in is showing people what they expect to see. Then they're much more willing not to notice how you're different. If they expect to see a jock, show them a jock. Read your Shakespearean sonnets in the privacy of your home. If they want to see a nerd, show them a nerd. Play stud with the girls from the next town over.

If everything goes well, the only person who'll notice you're different is you. And you can pretend not to see.


	3. Trowa

To know you are different, you must first know who you are. Even the person who knows he is extraordinary through not knowing his identity has an idea of who he is. He knows he is nameless. He knows he is without a place in life. He knows what he is _not_. Only once he has acknowledged this can he realize he is unusual.

Once a man realizes his differences, there are several paths that he can follow. He can reject his individuality in favor of being assimilated and "normal." He can compromise, keeping some of his own traits and adopting some of society's. He can accept his differences, welcome them, and continue governing his own actions and thoughts. 

Two of the paths are flawed.

To reinvent oneself totally is to abandon who you are, to create an entire new personality. To refuse to change completely is to deny that your differences may in fact be failings. It is only the man who is willing to compromise who truly knows himself. He is able to see both his strengths and weaknesses and is willing to embrace them both.

I have always known I was different. I suspect I still am. 


	4. Quatre

I grew up thinking that, like my 29 sisters, I was a test-tube baby specially created to my parents' orders. I believed I was a product not of their love, but of their wallet. I'd felt resentful, as though I'd been denied my humanity before I'd even been born. To my mind, my siblings and I were different from everyone else. There had seemed to be an invisible line drawn between my family and the rest of the universe, with us standing on the wrong side. 

When I discovered that, unlike my siblings, I was naturally born, my world turned upside down. Though before I had not liked who I was, I had at least had a sense of belonging. Suddenly, instead of being part of a group that was strong and united, I was just a solitary person standing on my own. "Them" and "us" instantly switched places, creating a barrier between my sisters and I. Despite what anyone said, we were truly not the same.

I lived alone for far too long. When I learned that there were four other Gundam pilots, who all felt the way I did, it was more than I had ever hoped for. 


	5. Wufei

It's difficult to stand on your own. There are always those who wish to see you fall and are more than willing to ensure that you do. There are those who are offended by your solitude and thrown off by your self-sufficiency. _Why_, they seem to wonder, _is this person able to function on their own? Are men not supposed to be interdependent? Is this solitary person not an affront to mankind? Would they not be better off if they were a part of society?_

They try so hard to show you how much you need them that they do nothing but push you away. Enemies qua friends. They do not understand that oftentimes, when a person holds himself apart, he does so with good reason. 

One does not awaken one morning and decide to be solitary. This choice is dictated by circumstance. To deny a man's circumstances is to deny that man. Not all men are equal; indeed, most men are not. Therefore, to force a strong man to live as if he were weak, or a weak man to live as if he were strong is overweening and fatuous. 

Those who live in solitude are not necessarily strong.


End file.
